As Bright as Heaven begins without brightness in a place that does not feel much like heaven. The story begins from the first-person perspective of Pauline, a wife and mother sitting at the grave of her six-month-old son as she contemplates a move away from the place she has lived her whole life to Philadelphia. The writing is poignant as the reader gets a glimpse of Pauline's feelings of joy at her son's birth to her acceptance of his death, which seems to allow her to move forward and take on whatever comes in the new land. I immediately felt that I cared for Pauline and her little family and I am interested to learn what becomes of them as they take off on a new adventure. As Pauline and her husband Thomas leave with their three daughters to a new world and new opportunities, it appears that while sadness may always follow, the brightness of heaven will shine ahead.